Eliahu Epstein, special representative of Israel to the United States, told the opening session of the 25th annual convention of the Junior Hadassah here today that Israel needs the skills and knowledge of young Jewish men and women from America to “join in our efforts and endeavors to make Israel a modern and progressive state in the Middle East.”

“We need not only your moral and material support to make Israel strong,” he said, “but also your knowledge of how to advance our creative work based on modern principles of technical and scientific management.”

Epstein also expressed the hope that the medical institutions of Israel which the Hadassah and the Junior Hadassah have helped to build “will soon again be able to devote their entire efforts to relieve the sufferings of the civil population of Israel without distinction to race or creed.” He said it was Israel’s ambition to become a “pioneer of health and a center of medical research and hygienic progress” serving all the peoples of the Middle East.

Recalling that it was almost a year ago today that the United Nations passed the Nov. 29 partition resolution, Epstein told the 1,000 delegates that “despite hostile and selfish forces within the United Nations, led by Great Britain, which have been trying to whittle down that tiny mite of land given to us last November, we are morally and militarily prepared to continue the fight until a stable peace is achieved.”

Epstein also expressed gratitude to the United States for the aid and assistance given to Israel and for the recent American assurance at the United Nations in Paris “that the frontiers of our state will not be changed without our consent.”